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Record spending, a return to multibillion-dollar deficit, and now a plan to take on debt to build needed provincial infrastructure — and this is somehow strong stewardship of our vast oil wealth?

Plans by Alison Redford’s government to take on new debt to fund infrastructure spending came as a surprise to many in the last couple of weeks, as it marked a sharp turn from the fiscal reality with which many Albertans have become familiar.

The premier cast the decision as a result of changing economic realities forcing their hand. The downturn, she said, had gone in a way no one had expected it to.

Is it a case of changing economic realities for the province, or reality finally catching up with the Redford Tories’ overly rosy budget projections? Take a guess which way I’m leaning on that one.

Besides, Albertans voted for the PC spending priorities, so there’s a mandate for running a budget that’s not balanced, right?

Wrong again. Even Redford was forced to admit that borrowing wasn’t on the table during the election but we still need the debt to build roads and schools and hospitals.

They acted as if everything was fine during the election, even when the price of oil hit the skids. Anyone with half a brain could see the problem posed for the rather rosy budget, not to mention the billions in additional election promises not included in the budget.

When the issue was raised with the finance minister, the questions were unfair and the budget projections were based on sound, expert estimates. But now, it’s all “changing realities.”

The climate hasn’t changed all that much in the last six months, but they’re trying to tell us that no one saw this coming.

We were given a glimpse of the new reality last month, when associate finance minister Kyle Fawcett let the cat out of the bag, suggesting the portion of the budget that will be balanced will be the operating side of things.

His boss Doug Horner quickly corrected him, but now we’ve seen who was really giving us the straight goods.

It’s interesting Fawcett was the first to come out and talk about debt, considering he was one of the so-called “Fiscal Six” (reduced from seven after Rob Anderson defected to the Wildrose), a group that openly criticized former premier Ed Stelmach’s profligate spending and promoted a need to spend and save wisely.

That small-c conservative club included people now in prime positions in Redford’s cabinet, Jonathan Denis and Doug Griffiths. We await their critiques with bated breath.

Yes, new schools and roads are important, but they weren’t so important to Redford during the election that she included them in a regular capital plan.

Schools were to be built once the province was in surplus again. So let’s not pretend there was any rush on their part, other than the rather optimistic belief we’d wind up in surplus in a hurry.

But we’re also talking about the campaign promises to build family care clinics, which haven’t even passed the pilot phase, and $150 million annually to fund an oilsands innovation authority.

When people question the Tories’ return to debt, regardless of whether it’s on operational or capital spending, it’s because the problem should have been obvious.

It’s because they tried to claim to the voting public things were fine, then act as if they have no control over what’s happening.

And it’s because they’re trying to spin their spending plans as living up to election promises, when it just doesn’t hold up to any scrutiny.

In other words, it’s because they seems to be making it up as they go along.